


Sunrises

by JenJo



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: F/M, TW: Suicide Mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 15:25:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14263998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JenJo/pseuds/JenJo
Summary: Kara and Jason take a moment to stop and watch the sunrise.(Well, they do, after having two life changing conversations.)





	Sunrises

**Author's Note:**

> Written at the request of the Red Hood & Supergirl meme accounts.  
> ( redhoodmeme.tumblr.com )  
> ( smolsupermemegirl.tumblr.com )
> 
> They had done an RP, and asked if I could turn it into a fic. I hope I did it justice!
> 
> Clarification on the TW:  
> At one point, Jason references the fact that he has, in the past, had suicidal thoughts and actions. It is a brief mention, and no details are gone into.  
> I have included signposts for when this occurs, and when it is over, in case you would prefer not to read it. Not reading it will not effect your understanding of the fic.  
> There are six lines, preceeded by [TW TW TW TW TW], in bold, and this sign occurs again when it is over.
> 
>  
> 
> CONTEXT!  
> In the context of this fic, Jason and Kara have recently been living apart. This is due to Jason making an error in judgement, and betraying Kara's trust in a huge way. They have slowly been rebuilding their relationship again, Jason having moved back in, but there is still a long way to go.  
> Boo is the pre-teen who Jason has effectively adopted in the RP; her account is at ( supremebatcat-boogracie.tumblr.com ). She is only mentioned twice in this fic.

The cafe was closed, still more than an hour before the sun was due to rise. But this was Gotham, and crime never slept. And neither did Supergirl, who stood on the rooftop of that cafe, looking out at the city.  She could hear the gang down by the mall, getting ready to break in. She could _also_ hear the GCPD making their way in, ready to stop the gang before they did any irreparable damage.

The sun was still barely beginning to break through the night, when she decided to text the man she couldn’t ignore forever, no matter how hard she wished she could.

 

**Kara: Can you meet me at the Cafe on 4th? ASAP.**

 

The reply was instant.

 

**Jason: OMW. Emergency?**

 

Kara bit her bottom lip, considering her answer.

 

**Kara: Kind of.**

**Kara: Yes.**

 

**Jason: Should I run back home & get the Hood?**

 

Well, she _did_ say it was an emergency………..

 

**Kara: It’s probably better.**

 

**Jason: I’ll be there shortly.**

 

**Kara: Okay.**

 

Kara put her phone away, turning back to wait for the sun to rise. It didn’t take long for Jason to appear. Kara turned at the first sounds of him, noting how he was in full Red Hood uniform.

 _Just like I asked him to_ , she thought, noting the broken arm that hung at his side.

“Supergirl?” he asked, the voice slightly modified through the helmet but still unmistakably _Jason_.

Kara nodded, and smiled. “Red Hood. Thanks for coming.” Kara turned her back on him, looking out at the city again. “There’s a gang two blocks down planning a big robbery at the mall.”

She tried to convey an expression that said that this was Serious Business, but she had never gotten good at fooling Jason; he would know that a robbery wasn’t why she had brought him here.

Jason took a step closer, before angling his body so that his broken left arm was further away from Kara, and out of her immediate line of sight. He then walked up to stand beside her, looking as though he was _also_ looking out at the city. Kara suspected that, behind his helmet, he was looking side-long at her.

“There’s _always_ a robbery at the mall; the GCPD will be on it quick enough.” Kara imagined that she could see Jason frowning slightly at her, in that way he got when he was worried about her. “Why did you _really_ call me here?”

“You should not force that arm,” Kara said instinctively, without even considering her words. She then offered him a side-smile at his answer to her. “We need to talk, remember?”

Jason had a slight smirk on his face, not that Kara could see it. “The Red Hood doesn’t get injured, least of all a broken arm. Hence the whole ‘angling my arm away from you so you can’t see it’ thing I _tried_ for, but failed.”

Kara couldn’t help but laugh softly at that. “Well, physically, it’s hard for you to hide things from me, your suit is not made of lead…” Kara trailed off when she realised what she had just said. She pointed a finger at Jason. “Don’t get creative.”

Jason also let out a little laugh at her words. “Can you blame me for forgetting about your vast array of superpowers?”

Kara noticed how Jason stayed silent at the idea of using lead in his suit. She left the prospect alone, for now. “I suppose not,” she sighed; Jason forgetting about her powers had been a common occurrence in the entire time that she had known him.

Jason’s smirk from earlier was now gone, replaced by a worried frown that he was almost certain she could hear in his voice at his next words. “We haven’t been so good at the talking thing lately, have we?” Jason’s expression changed to a self-deprecating smile, and the shrug of his right shoulder. “Is this an _us_ talk?” He waved between the two of them, the “Red Hood  & Supergirl” implied in the gesture. “Or an **us** talk?” He didn’t accompany this with any gesture, but his meaning was more than clear; was this a talk between two superheroes, or between Jason and Kara?

Kara let out a sigh, turning and walking away from the edge of the rooftop. “Not really. Also, I don’t think Supergirl has any matters with the Red Hood at the moment, so…” She trailed off, waiting for him to respond.

Jason didn’t turn around, instead keeping watch over the city. He did take off his helmet, holding it loosely in his hand. He purposefully kept his back to her. “They rarely do; those two are quite the team, after all.”

The difference in his voice was noticeable, and Kara couldn’t help but catch the notes of distress in his voice, the disuse. She stared at his back as she uncrossed her arms; she may be in her Supergirl uniform, but here and now was one hundred and ten percent Kara danvers. “They are. But we need to talk about us now, forget the symbols on our chests.”

“Us,” Jason all but whispered, continuing to stare out at the city. He nodded at her words, before continuing. “I’d almost begun to thought that there wouldn’t _be_ an us. Not anymore.”

Kara looked down at her hands for a moment, nodding to herself, despite Jason’s back still being to her. She looked up, blinking at his back. “For the first time, after everything we’ve been through, I thought the same thing. I just,” Kara paused, shrugging to herself. “I really thought it was it. The end. Of all of _us_.”

“We’ve… we’ve been through absolute hell and back, but we always found our way back to each other.” Jason was idly swinging his helmet in his hand as he spoke; Kara couldn’t help but stare at the movement. “But _this_? This was something else entirely.”

“It was indeed.” Kara paused, swallowing against the memories her next words would bring back. When she spoke, her voice was just loud enough to be heard by Jason, but nowhere near her normal volume. “I packed a bag. This time, I… I didn’t feel like I could just _stay_ there… with all of you, but none…” she had to stop, unable to find anymore words. She lifted a hand to her mouth, unable to ignore the fact that it was trembling.

Jason didn’t immediately respond, instead biting his lip as he raised his helmet. He tapped it again his forehead a few times, his eyes screwed shut. Seemingly out of nowhere, he pauses the tapping, instead resting his forehead against the helmet for a moment.  He then dropped his hand, still holding the helmet, but kept his head bowed. Jason’s eyes remained closed, his voice barely any louder than Kara’s was, and definitely nowhere near as stable. “I’ve been through a _lot,_ Kara, and yet it all pales in comparison to how much it hurts me to know I did that to you.”

His words immediately lead to her shaking her head. Unable to stay still, but not trusting herself to be _near_ him right now, she started to slowly pace around the rooftop. She never took her eyes from his back. “It’s not like any of us would ever make mistakes, it’s just that…” she paused, frowning, anger and sadness at the memories returning. “Do you have _any_ idea how terrible it was lying in that bed thinking that you _wouldn’t_ be coming back _ever_?”

Jason blew out a long breath, struggling to speak- he was trying very hard not to cry. “I… I don’t have any excuse. And I have no words that can convey just how much I messed up. I know it, you know it, hell, _everyone_ probably knows it by now. And I get it. You were in that- _our_ bed, and I wasn’t. And…” Here Jason paused, swallowing before continuing. “And I made you feel that way.” Jason shook his head, laughing bitterly. “I’ve hurt people for less than what I’ve done to you, you know?”

He may have kept his back to her to avoid her seeing him cry, but she can hear the way his breath is catching. She’s trying not to cry herself, focusing her energy on her pacing. “Our bed, our house, our home.” The pacing stops; Kara’s shoulders drop, and she just stands in the middle of the rooftop. The first rays of the sun are beginning to peak through the night, and her hair is reflecting that light. Not that there is anyone to see her hair right now. “You know, I used to feel awkward for living there, because that was _your_ safehouse. The place you went with Boo to stay away from the Manor, and for quite a long time I felt like an intruder. In _your_ life, in _Boo’s_ life. But then, one day, you told me that that was _our_ place, and that what was yours was mine too.” Kara paused here, wiping at her eyes before continuing. “We started to share more than just feelings… and for me it doesn’t really matter your methods with other people. Nothing I could do would change the Red Hood and I wouldn’t want to. But…” Kara paused again, almost choking on her words. “But it matters to me as soon as it affects me. I know you have your jobs that are not my business, but we still share other things. And _this_ was a thing that should’ve been shared!” Kara could no longer fight her tears, letting them fall freely. “Because I…. because I don’t see how I can _be_ without you anymore.”

Jason doesn’t immediately reply, taking time to process that and find his own words in response. He could hear the tears in her voice, but hadn’t turned around, not yet. There was something more he had to say to her, something that could mean the difference between spending the rest of his life with Kara, and never seeing her again.

“There…. There’s an uncomfortable truth, that I’ve always tried to hide from, to run away from.” Jason sighed, looking across the city that had been his entire life, would possibly _be_ his entire life, if this conversation went badly. “And that truth, is the truth of who I am. And for a while, I was fine with just being the Hood, being the guy who cleaned up the streets, who saved the little guy. For a while, I thought that that was all I’d ever need in my life.”  Jason sighed before continuing. “Then something happened, to change my entire world. A woman fell in love with me, the me that I had tried so hard to ignore, the me that I had almost convinced myself didn’t exist anymore.” Jason lifted up his helmet again, looking into its eyes intensely as he spoke. He could just about see Kara’s reflection in the helmet, but _still_ couldn’t meet her eyes. “And she made me question everything I knew about myself. That old me, the one who lived the life of the Hood?” Jason shook his head briefly. “He wouldn’t have wanted you in that safehouse. He also wouldn’t have wanted Boo there either, so that shows you what _he_ knew.” He laughed briefly at that, before continuing on. “That old me would _never_ have opened up with anyone, in any way. He could _never_ have imagined having someone like _you_ in his life. There- there are times where I _still_ struggle with it. With the fact that you _aren’t_ going to leave me in the middle of the night. And by God do I mess up. I mess up enough for the _both_ of us.” Jason closed his eyes again, lowering his head almost as though he was praying. “But I swear, Kara Danvers, that I will live my life being a man who you can be proud of.”

Jason slowly turned around as he opened his eyes. He didn’t look up at Kara; instead, he watched as he tossed his helmet at her feet, watching the movement as it came to rest there. “And that man doesn’t hide behind his hood anymore.”

Kara clenched her fists to try and stop them from shaking. She _wanted_ to cry and yell, wanted to do a lot of things right now, but she couldn’t, not on this rooftop.

 _There’ll be time for yelling later,_ she thought as she looked down at his helmet. She picked it up and held it in her hands, staring at it for a while, a thousand different thoughts blasting across her face quicker than she could process them. Kara then looked at Jason, walking over to him before putting the helmet back down near them. She reached up, holding his face between her hands as she wiped away his tears.

 _My whole world in my hands,_ she thought, and smiled internally. _Time for that later though, something more important to say first._

“We’ve come a long way already, been through a lot, it’s true. But leaving in the middle of the night is a thought that has _never_ crossed my mind.” She shook her head, a small smile on her lips. “Not before, not now. And even when I had lost hope in _us,_ I couldn’t make myself leave that place. I’ll do better too, in the ways that I can…” Kara stopped, nodding to herself. “We’ll be better. _Together_.”

Jason had listened to her intensely, looking into her eyes and barely blinking so that he didn’t miss a single word. He had placed his right hand on her waist as she spoke. “I know this, I _do,_ and I am _always_ going to do my best to show you that I’m here for the long run.”

Kara smiled, a full smile, as she realised just how much she loved the man standing in front of her. “You know… one day, I _will_ marry you, Jason Peter Todd. And it’ll be cheesy; I’ll get down on one knee, and I’ll ask you to marry me, and you’ll say yes, and we’re going to prove that whatever the odds are, whatever the odds _were_ , we are _meant_ to be together, _forever_.”

Jason spared a moment, a _very brief_ moment, to be surprised by this, before coming to the only logical conclusion; _this is_ **_right_ ** _for us._   
“That,” Jason paused, having to clear his throat. “That sounds perfect, Kara Danvers. And like you said, I _will_ say yes. We’ll prove to the world that we’re together, _forever_.”

The smile on Kara’s face almost threatened to split her in two, it was so big. She couldn’t help but wrap her arms around him in a hug, a tight one, but still being mindful of his broken arm.

Unlike Jason, who hugged her back while ignoring the fact that he had a broken arm. _I might have had a life changing conversation just now, but I’m still Jason Todd._

Kara rolled her eyes, knowing Jason too well at this stage to be surprised by this behaviour, before looking up at him. “We should probably go back home and wrap your arm in a sling again.”

Jason, true to form, ignored that. Instead, in a move that had even Kara blinking in confusion, he spread their arms, did a spin, and ended up standing behind Kara, never having once let go of her. He now rested his chin on her shoulder, his right arm around her waist, and his broken left arm by his side. He nodded against her shoulder towards the horizon. “But Kara, sunrise! When was the last time that you and me just stood and watched the sunrise together?”

Kara could not help but laugh at his sincere excitement at this sunrise. She let her head lean against his gently, patting his hand. “How long have we been together? Almost a year? That’s how long since…..” Kara was genuinely surprised by this realisation, and it showed in her voice. “For Rao, it’s been _that_ long.”

Jason hummed. “We kind of stopped watching them once we became…” Jason searched for the right word to finish the sentence with, before settling on, “ _us_.”

Kara nodded in agreement. “We did. We really shouldn’t have, though. Those sunrises have a lot of stories about _us_ to tell.”

“They really do, don’t they.” Jason turned to kiss Kara’s cheek. “We have forever together to watch _all_ the sunrises together.”

“Yeah,” Kara sighed, watching the sunrise for a while. She considered their conversation, and the new air of honesty between them. There was something she had to tell Jason, something that had, in fact, prompted her text to him in the first place. _Now is as good a time as any_ , she thought. Taking a breath for courage, she asked, “how long is our forever?”

Jason blinked, not having expected the question. “Huh?”

Kara closed her eyes, taking a deep breathe. _This is going to hurt_. “As long as the sun rises, I’ll live. But…” Kara trailed off, hoping Jason would pick up on her meaning.

She could feel his body tighten at her words. “But…?”

Kara’s breath failed her; she barely got her next words out. “But what if… what if…” she _can’t_ say it, instead beginning to cry again.

Jason briefly lets go of Kara, in order to stand in front of her. He puts his hand on her cheek, wiping at the tears with his thumb. “What is it, Kara?”

Kara focused on Jason, as though if she looked away, he would cease to exist. “What it it’s not… _forever_?”

Jason’s only reaction was to frown slightly. “Forever, Kara. What are you getting at?”

Kara shook her head. “No, Jason… _I_ get to live forever…” She trailed off again.

Again, Jason barely reacted, merely raising his eyebrows. “So?”

Kara frowned, shaking her head in anger, Jason’s hand dropping away. “How can you be so calm about this?” She lifted her arms, holding them in the air. “I’m saying that I’ll get to live forever, which means that I’ll have to watch you _die_ !”   
_There, I’ve said it, he’ll_ have _to understand now,_ Kara thought, dropping her arms as she watched Jason for his response.

“What?” Jason continued to be confused by Kara’s words. “Why would _you_ have to watch _me_ die?”

Kara searches his face, looking for _anything_ , before realising: _he honestly doesn’t see a problem here._ She sighed, shaking her head sadly. “Because you’re still a human, Jason.”

Jason watched Kara back, before his face lit up in recognition. His hand, which had been hanging in the air after Kara stepped away, moved to rub his jaw. “Um,” was all he said.

Kara, who had never taken her eyes off of him, frowned. “Why are you reacting like this?”

Jason briefly lifts his hand to cover his face, before dropping it. His face no longer looked confused, but carefully blank. “Reacting like I don’t _care_ ? That it _isn’t_ a problem?”

Kara could feel the tears falling again; these ones were mostly formed from a  mixture of anger and fear, but they were _still_ tears. “How… how is this _not_ a problem?”

“Because,” JAson began, before pausing. His face lit up in comprehension, quickly followed by dread. “I… I haven’t told _anyone_ about this. Ever. And I think you’re the _only_ person I’ll _ever_ tell.”

Kara didn’t speak, merely watching him, and waiting for him to explain.

Jason was clearly struggling with himself; once he told her, it would mean giving voice to the one truth that Jason had been trying to hide from more than any other. But the struggle was brief; Kara wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was he.

“I- I’m not going to die of old age, Kara.”

Kara watched his struggle play out over his face, pausing to put together the pieces of his words. She did not like the picture that they created. “Are you sick?”

Jason blinked as he shook his head, genuinely surprised by this thought. “No? Why would you think that?”

Kara hled up a hand, blinking away her tears. “Look, Jason, my mind is _really_ not in a good place right now, and the options it’s coming up with are not good at _all_ . So, just…. Just _tell_ me what it is, so I can be prepared.” She looked at him, not blinking away the tears this time. Her voice was barely above a whisper as she spoke one final word; “Please?”

“I’m sorry,” Jason took a few steps towards her, and reached out; when Kara nodded, he began to wipe away her tears again. “You know how I was _dead_ , and how I became _not_ dead again?”

Kara nodded, leaning into his hand. “The Pit.”

Jason nodded. “Well, thanks to _that_ , I didn’t exactly come back...” Jason frowned, his face scrunching up as though he’s bracing for an attack. “... Human?”

Kara considered this, lifting a hand to trace over the lines of his face. He slowly unscrunched his face as she went, and when his face was calm again, she spoke. “Well, there is something not quite human in your body, I can’t avoid _not_ noticing sometimes.” Kara paused again, whispering again. “You can’t die?”

 

**[TW TW TW TW TW]**

 

Jason shook his head. “Not so far as I’ve found.”

“As you… Jason…. I...” Kara trailed off, searching his face. Jason merely raised his eyebrows, waiting for Kara to speak. It was clear that he wasn’t expecting any answer in particular from her, but he gave her the time to process.

“You…” Kara shook her head, unable to put into words what she knew was true. She moved her hand to the back of his neck, where she could feel a scar she had seen before.

Jason nodded to her unspoken question, still keeping his expression carefully blank. If he had a reaction to her tracing his scar, it was a brief closing of his eyes, a brief hitch of his breath, nothing a human could have perceived.

 _Kara_ wasn’t _human, and saw everything._

“I know,” Jason eventually said. “It’s- it’s in the past. I’m here today, with the woman who is going to propose to me one day, who I’ll live with forever. That- that’s got to count for _something_ , right?”

 

**[TW TW TW TW TW]**

 

Kara nodded. “It definitely does,” she said, as she hugged him tighter than before, resting her head on his chest. Jason immediately wrapped his arm around her, bending down to kiss the top of her head. “Any other life changing things you want to discuss on this fine morning?”

Kara could tell that he was joking; she laughed at his words. “No, enough of the life changing talking for now.”

Only for now; because they were both still new to this, new to the “sharing everything” idea of living. But they would get there, with time. And with each other.

“Oh, good,” Jason sighed with clear relief, still holding onto her. “You okay?

Kara’s response was muffled by his shoulder, but it was clear enough. “Yeah, I am. Are _you_?”

Jason breathed out slowly, looking back at the sunrise. “I’ll get there.”

Kara pressed a gentle kiss on his shoulder. “ _We’ll_ get there.”

“Together,” Jason agreed, taking a moment to appreciate just how _right_ this was.

Kara lifted her head, and reached up to pull Jason down into a kiss. Jason willingly responded. It wasn’t like their previous kisses had been; this one held the promise of a _future_ , of many more sunrises to come, of many more nights in each other’s arms.

Kara was the one to break it, reluctant though she was. She stepped out of Jason’s arms, and picked up his helmet. She held it in front of her, and pressed a kiss to it’s forehead before holding it between them. “We should go before someone sees us.”

Jason took back the helmet, holding it just in front of him. “Race you home?”

Kara shook her head instantly. “Not a chance. Your arm is _broken_ , after all.”

“Afraid you’ll lose?” Jason asked with a raised eyebrow, before putting on his helmet. With a brief wave, he turned and jumped off of the side of the building, beginning to run home.

Kara shook her head. “I love that idiot,” she sighed to herself, before making her way back to their home.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, I hope you enjoyed it!  
> :D


End file.
